FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF POE'S FIRST BOOK OF PROSE AND HIS ONLY NOVEL. Two serialized installments of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym were first published in the Southern Literary Messenger in January and February of 1837. When Poe left the magazine, its publication ceased until the complete text of the novel was published by Harper's in July of 1838. Wiley and Putname published this English edition in October 1838, without the inclusion of the diary entry for 22 March. Pym gained immediate notoriety, both because of its sensational subject matter and because it appeared to some to be a true account of perilous and fantastic voyage. Although Poe himself later called it "a very silly book," it nevertheless became an influential work, notably for Herman Melville and Jules Verne. BAL 16128; Bleiler (1978), p. 159; Heartman & Canny, pp.38-40; Wright (I) 2052.